* The Bird Flu Hysteria and What To Do

BIRD FLU HYSTERIA

What to do? The bird flu is on its way….. Or is it? Lets look at the facts before we all run out and start taking the drug Tamiflu®. First, many people commonly use the word “flu” to describe their bad cold or stomach “flu.” This is incorrect medical usage.  Influenza is a severe upper respiratory infection caused by influenza A or B viruses. If you are not sure of these distinctions visit http://www.heartlandnaturopathic.com/cold&flu.htm for more information.

The bird (or avian) influenza is a viral infection of birds caused by the “H5N1” influenza virus. Currently it is not primarily a human disease. However, a few people have contracted it directly from sick birds. Less then 100 of these people have died. All of these human victims lived in Asia and worked directly with, or even lived with, sick birds. There is no evidence any North American birds have contracted the virus yet. So far the only way for a human to get bird flu is from handling a live sick bird. You cannot get it from another human, thus it cannot be transmitted from one human to another. In addition, it cannot be gotten from eating poultry (well, maybe if you ate a sick bird raw right after it had died, but even that is unlikely), nor is it likely to ever find its way into pet birds kept indoors.

Given that the bird flu is not really a human disease, what is the media’s and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) concern? The WHO is concerned that this virus could mutate and begin to infect humans directly and cause a worldwide pandemic influenza outbreak that could lead to millions of deaths. Once in known history this kind of pandemic occurred. In 1918 what was called the “Spanish flu” broke out and spread around the world. It was the worst acute infective disease tragedy in history. Many millions died all over the world from what was thought to be a “swine” flu. It is feared that this could happen again. However, it is worth visiting history one more time to look at the threatened pandemic of  “swine” flu of 1976 that never was.

Much like today, health officials predicted another pandemic and initiated a nationwide vaccination program that had tragic results. (I love this quote.) “For the most part, the vaccination went more smoothly than even expected, with less than the predicted side effects and deaths.”(1) However, because of many problems the vaccination program was aborted after less then a quarter of the population was vaccinated. While the swine flu never appeared, in some people the vaccine triggered Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare chronic paralytic disease similar to polio. With these kinds of risks we don’t want to panic again.

WHAT TO DO

Of course, just because the last predicted influenza pandemic didn’t happen, that doesn’t mean that this one won’t. No one knows. What do we recommend if it did? Well, we recommend the same things we recommend for any influenza infection. Support the immune system with the recommended immune support found in our handouts and at http://www.heartlandnaturopathic.com/self-care.htm. The immune system is capable of responding the same whether the infection is from bacteria, a common virus, or influenza of the common or a pandemic variety.

In addition to the usual immune support infection protocols, homeopathic remedies are extremely effective with any influenza. The combination (mixed) homeopathic remedies that are found in the health food stores might be effective. Plus, the single homeopathic remedy occillococcium is supposedly specific for influenza and it may be wise to stock up on it just to have something in the house. However, we find that neither of these non-specific homeopathic approaches is as effective as the individually matched homeopathic remedy. To maximize your potential of responding as quickly as possible the best results will always be achieved by consulting with a trained homeopath and getting the single homeopathic remedy matched to how you are specifically responding to the infection.

During the 1918 pandemic homeopathic doctors and hospitals had incredible success treating the victims of that deadly influenza.(2) In our own practice we have seen a success rate with influenza that is phenomenal. A few years ago the flu vaccine didn’t have the correct strains of influenza virus in them so there were more than the usual number of people coming in for acute homeopathic prescriptions. We were very successful with nearly every patient. Usually patients saw an improvement within hours of the correct homeopathic remedy.

Influenza is a difficult acute disease to self-treat. Although you should do the home treatments recommended, coming in to the clinic or arranging a phone consultation for an acute homeopathic remedy specifically tailored to your case will maximize you and your family’s potential for a quick recovery. No other treatment, natural or pharmaceutical, works as well for influenza as acute homeopathy. At our clinic we have had very consistent success with flu cases, no matter how severe. It is worth noting that the recommended drug for influenza, Tamiflu® (oseltamivir), only increases the speed of recovery by 1 to 1.5 days.(3) The correctly prescribed acute homeopathic remedy does much better than that!

If the bird flu becomes a general threat to humans by mutating as feared, homeopaths around the world will study the illness’ presentation so we can be ready with the appropriate remedies. How is this helpful? We find that every season, influenza strikes with a pattern that is fairly consistent for that particular virus for that year. This allows us, once we have seen a few cases, to narrow the homeopathic remedies we need to select from down from hundreds to three or four. This information gets shared in the homeopathic community and greatly increases the accuracy of our prescribing when that strain of virus arrives locally.

Although nothing may come of this year’s influenza pandemic hysteria, if this bird flu mutates and breaks out into the human population, homeopaths will be ready and you have effective options.

(1) Silverstein, Arthur M. Pure Politics and Impure Science: The Swine Flu Affair. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1981.

(2) Perko, Sandra J. Homeopathic Treatment of Influenza - Bird Flu Edition, Benchmark Homeopathic Publishers, 2005.

(3) Physicians’ Desk Reference, 59th Edition, Thomson Healthcare, Inc., 2005.

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